A wide variety of towels, napkins, and the like are known in the prior art. For example, a patentability search conducted relative to the present invention located the following U.S. Pat. Nos: 3,007,605, 3,047,141, 2,447,223, 1,698,823, 1,777,466, 4,143,762, 3,119,516, 1,962,762, 1,681,639, 1,706,166, 4,623,074, 2,224,630, 2,009,464, and 1,501,662.
Not disclosed in the above-identified patents, but well known in the prior art are two additional folded towel configurations which are identified hereinafter as prior art and are described herein.
The folded sheet product according to the present invention incorporates a specific construction not shown in the prior art which has numerous advantages. In particular, the product comprising the present invention has features which make it particularly applicable for use with conventional dispensing cabinets.
Many prior art towels and the like must be loaded into a cabinet with a specific side of the towel disposed downwardly and a specific side thereof disposed upwardly. Also, prior art constructions can have specific "right" ends and "left" ends. If the towels are placed in the dispenser cabinet upside down or with the ends thereof reversed, they cannot readily be dispensed through the conventional slot arrangement extending across the bottom of the cabinet. The sheet product of the present invention, on the other hand, has no "upside" or "downside" and no specific "right" end or "left" end, and the product may be loaded in the cabinet with either side up or down and with its ends oriented either way. Also, as contrasted to some of the more commonly utilized prior art arrangements, the sheet product of the present invention dispenses better because it is essentially self-opening as it is pulled from the cabinet.
The sheet product of the present invention has a configuration which also has a number of advantages over the prior art approaches with regard to the packaging and shipping thereof. It is common practice to stack and band a plurality of paper towels or like products together as a package for shipment and storage prior to use. Packages of the sheet product constructed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention hold their shape better than packages of conventional prior art towels even when tightly compressed in packaging. Further, packages of sheet products constructed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention require less space than commonly used prior art products even though the sheet products themselves are exactly the same size when unfolded.